Young Aggies Fall In Another Five-Set Match

Courtesy: NC A&T Sports Information

Release: 10/18/2012

Freshman Te'Borah Hawkins-Hollingsworth hits over the Norfolk State block Wednesday night at Moore Gymnasium. Hawkins-Hollingsworth had a season-high 15 kills in the Aggies 3-2 loss to the Spartans. Photo by Kevin L. Dorsey

Courtesy: NC A&T Sports Information

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GREENSBORO-The North Carolina A&T volleyball team came
within three points of winning their second straight match on Wednesday night
at Moore Gymnasium. But the Norfolk
State Spartans fought back and claimed the come-from-behind victory in five sets
(25-16, 29-31, 25-15, 22-25, 15-13) to hand the Aggies a tough back-and-forth
match.

The contest was tied 53 times and the lead changed hands 27
times.

"We played a pretty solid match most of the way through,"
said A&T head coach Hal Clifton. "We
struggled in the first set. They came
out on fire and we came out flat. We
turned it around in the second set and got very excited and felt like we could
compete, and ended up competing and going to extra points. The fourth set we played really well. The fifth set we played really well, we just
got to find ways to finish matches and finish sets. We've struggled to do that at times. This is another fifth-set match we didn't
close out when we had the lead at the changeover. We just didn't step up and finish."

Freshman Te'Borah Hawkins-Hollingsworth totaled a
season-best 15 kills for the Aggies from the left side, while freshman Brooke
Stamnes posted her fifth double-double of the season with 13 kills and 17
digs. Freshman Ashley Johnson tallied 25
digs.

"I'm very proud of Te'Borah's production. She's finally worked her way into the lineup
and I really liked a lot of the things she was doing out there," Clifton
said. "Picking up 17 digs is really good
for Brooke. We've been really stressing
her to play better defense out of the back row.
She can't just be an attacker and she really stepped it up tonight and
made some great defensive stabs...[Ashley's] really adjusted to the college game
and is starting to take ownership of that libero position. I'm really proud of her effort. Five digs per set is a pretty nice night for
any libero."

But the Aggies had trouble
hanging on to their lead in the final set.
Andrea Evans gave A&T a 9-6 lead as she towered over the net to slam
down a Chelsea Fox set. A&T still held the lead at 12-11 moments later when
Charlotte Armstead served up an attack error The Spartans gained the lead by going
on a 3-0 run. Johnson stepped the pain with a service ace to move the Aggies to
within one at 14-13 But Jessica Johnson ended the match as she bounced a kill
between Johnson and Stamnes.

"They got into a rotation where their server just ripped off
four solid jump serves and we struggled and really at that point, that was the
big difference," Clifton said. "If we
side out on her first serve or she has a service error, it changes the entire
game. I think we got a little tight and
she got a little more confident, and we weren't able to handle her."

In the first set, the Aggies were unable to protect their
lead. A kill from Hawkins-Hollingsworth
gave A&T the lead at 15-14, but then the Spartans went on a 6-0 run to pull
ahead. The Aggies collected their last
point of the set on a service error by a Ramos to make it a 20-16 game. Norfolk State then collected the next five
points to win the set.

Down 2-1, the Aggies roared back in the fourth set, and
looked poise to win their first home match of the year. A&T picked up a 20-17 lead on a Norfolk
State attack error. Moments later,
Stamnes tipped the ball over the net for a kill and to give A&T a 22-19
lead. Johnson grew the lead to 23-19 on
a service ace. The Spartans didn't give up, as they won two points to make it a
24-22 set. The Aggies called a timeout and
came out of the break with a Jeana Daniels kill to give A&T the set.

The Aggies will travel next week to take on The Citadel on
Wednesday, Oct. 23 at 6 p.m., before going to Durham to take on the N.C.
Central Eagles at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 26.
They will look to take the competitiveness from Wednesday's loss into
their final six matches of the season.

"We've got to take away that we competed against a very good
Norfolk State team and we've just got to focus on that we can do good things
and keep after it," said Clifton. "We've
got to take away that we can compete. We
can get after it, we can play. Believing
that we can play and believing that we're good enough to win is where we're at. We're just getting over the hump."